posted Jan 6th, 2011 - One more day before the first scores of the new competition season will be posted at the Dubai Championship 2011, and the numbers will most likely be on a higher level compared to last year.

The competition will be easier for the teams this year for one very simple reason. The jump plane for the 4-way competition is a Twin Otter this time, which will make a world of a difference for the exit work.

The audience may remember that the teams had to deal with a helicopter, a Bell 212, in January 2010. Some teams tried to launch the complete first formations of the sequences, some did not. Arizona Airspeed used certain exit formations to get to the first point, such as a Side Body (P) or a Stairstep Diamond (B).

This strategy worked out well for Airspeed, and the scoring level was still impressive. The Dubai Championship 2010 was one of the meets where Airspeed scored 20 points or higher in each round. The 4-way world champions of 2008 were the only 20-point team in Dubai 2010 and won by five points after the 8-round meet.

NMP-PCH Hayabusa was close but lost too many points in the judging room, several due to video trouble. It began in Round 1 where Hayabusa lost two points since team videographer Danny Jacobs could not film his team. His equipment had not arrived in Dubai when the competition began.

Pilon, a freeflyer from Spain who was recommended for the camera work, had agreed to do the Hayabusa job. Of course, he needed to get used to the exit from the Bell 212 helicopter and the team procedures and had only Round 1 to go to school. It was no big surprise that the judges deducted two points due to the camera angle in Round 1. Hayabusa had the same strategy as Airspeed and was launching a Side Body as the exit formation.

The Twin Otter will make it much easier this year, and there is a good chance that the meet average will go up by a point for all teams. The chances for other aircraft troubles will also be reduced. Last year, there were a few situations where controversies related to the helicopter's exit procedures caused a re-jump and heated discussions.

Airspeed was granted a re-jump for Round 3, and the Belgian team was not too happy about that. Hayabusa complained that a protest should be filed before a team knows the score, even though there is no rule that requires such a procedure: "If you are feeling unhappy with the exit, you protest immediately and not after knowing the score!"

Hayabusa members argued that Airspeed could have ignored the issue, as other teams were dealing with the same situation, including the Belgian top contender. However, this is all history, and chances are little that there could be similar problems with the aircraft this year.

Dubai 4-way Open Class?
Who wins the Dubai Championship 2011 in the 4-way Open Class	USA Belgium France Others
	Current Results

There is another improvement of the logistics this year. The results of the judging procedure and any details of the penalty situations were completely subject to speculation in Dubai 2010, as Airspeed's Craig Girard reported at that time.

There was no eletronic judging system in Dubai. Rumor was that there are five judges in a room with a stopwatch. The scores were only posted on the original scoresheet somewhere at the competition site.

This will be different tomorrow. The SouthAfrican InTime scoring system will be used in Dubai, and Chief Judge for all events, Dr. Rainer "Exi" Hoenle from Germany, will have a more professional judging environment this year.